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Our People
Clarity for blurry pics
Monday, 23 June 2003
By LISAH HENRY
Locals develop Focus Magic programme
A PAKURANGA software company has developed a programme that could take the heartache out of those once in a lifetime photographs that went wrong.
Acclaim Software in Reeves Road has launched Focus Magic 2.0, a programme which gives clarity to out of focus images.
Company chief executive Eric Schwerzel said the application recovers detail from blurred images and would appeal to not just the publishing and advertising industries but museums, forensic scientists or anyone wanting to enhance their genealogy and old photographs.
He said it differs from existing Sharpen or Unsharp mask filters by reversing the formula by which the image became blurred. It’s already impressed internationally with a write-up in the technology section of The Post Standard in New York.
Writer Al Fasoldt praised the quality of enhanced photos from Focus Magic.
“It miraculously turns those goofy out-of-focus pictures you took at the family reunion into images you could hang at the Louvre.”
Mr Schwerzel said the programme currently only works on Windows but the company is developing a Mac version.
Since launching earlier this month, the company is experiencing about 1000 downloads a day from its website for the free short-term trial and hopes that translates in to future orders.
Mr Schwerzel said while he was responsible for the math side of the programme, business partner Jamie Smith worked on the user interface side of Focus Magic. Acclaim Software has a sales office in Texas while its development base is in New Zealand.
To find out more go to
www.focusmagic.com
